FPS Drop

[Ketick]

I'm a returning player from about 5 years ago. I've been playing (again) for nearly a month now, but the past week I've been experiencing random but frequent FPS drops, to the point that I am having trouble completing story FPs like the Assault on Tython. I've turned my Graphics to the lowest, Shadows are off, Bloom is off, etc. I am not a computer person, so I do not know too much about my computer. I know it can run WoW and it was fairly perfectly running SWTOR until a week ago. The stickers on my computer say "Intel Core 17 7th Gen" and "Nvidia GEForce 940MX". Please help!

 

FYI, I did try running as admin. Still didn't help

[DeadOptimus]

Have you tried running it in windowed (full screen)? I noticed I had major drops in true full screen that were addressed by using windowed full screen. Edited May 20, 2021 by DeadOptimus

[TrixxieTriss]

I'm a returning player from about 5 years ago. I've been playing (again) for nearly a month now, but the past week I've been experiencing random but frequent FPS drops, to the point that I am having trouble completing story FPs like the Assault on Tython. I've turned my Graphics to the lowest, Shadows are off, Bloom is off, etc. I am not a computer person, so I do not know too much about my computer. I know it can run WoW and it was fairly perfectly running SWTOR until a week ago. The stickers on my computer say "Intel Core 17 7th Gen" and "Nvidia GEForce 940MX". Please help!

 

FYI, I did try running as admin. Still didn't help

 

Sounds like your laptop is thermal throttling (getting to hot) and switching to the onboard (CPU) graphics.

 

Things to check are the ports or vents on the laptop and see if you have any dust, hair or fluff stuck in there. You should also make sure there is plenty of ventilation and your room isn’t too hot,

 

There is also a Windows setting under power management that allows you to set your CPU utilisation to 100%. This should stop it throttling down, but only if your CPU isn’t getting too hot,

[JediQuaker]

Same applies if it's a desktop. Open it up and clean the dust out and make sure ALL cooling fans are running properly.

(The MX graphics implies a laptop, however.)

 

SWTOR can put a heavy load on both the CPU and GPU (depending upon settings) and the combined heat can overwhelm the cooling system, especially if dust is built up and/or a fan isn't working.

Edited May 20, 2021 by JediQuaker

[SteveTheCynic]

The stickers on my computer say "Intel Core 17 7th Gen" and "Nvidia GEForce 940MX". Please help!

What the others said, but...

 

No, it doesn't say "Core Seventeen". It says "Core Eye Seven" because it's i7 and not 17.

[SteveTheCynic]

Things to check are the ports or vents on the laptop and see if you have any dust, hair or fluff stuck in there. You should also make sure there is plenty of ventilation and your room isn’t too hot,

And don't put the laptop directly on a soft surface like a quilt or bedsheet or couch. The little feet in the corners dig in to the surface and the bottom then lies directly on the surface, and that blocks the holes where air gets *in* in order to cool the components inside.

[TheVoyant]

While the solutions posted may do the trick and I hope they do.

I've had 5 or 6 people state the same thing and began experiencing it myself on a state of the art gaming comp with the last update.

 

If its the stutter effect. Where the screen basically freezes every few seconds, that is SWTOR not your PC, as its become more unstable over the past month or so. It does primarily seem to happen in group finder content more then anywhere else, be it Warzones/Ranked/Flashpoints.

 

Good news is if this is the case a restart of the game tends to fix this for at least a day or so on average. You can always try a fresh reinstall as well, switching to the Steam version has helped a lot of people in my experiences.

 

Ultimately if this is the only game that gives you issues like this, chances are it's the game not your computer.

[TrixxieTriss]

And don't put the laptop directly on a soft surface like a quilt or bedsheet or couch. The little feet in the corners dig in to the surface and the bottom then lies directly on the surface, and that blocks the holes where air gets *in* in order to cool the components inside.

 

Correct. You can get a cheap laptop stand with a hard surface, which a good idea if you aren’t playing at a desk.

[TrixxieTriss]

While the solutions posted may do the trick and I hope they do.

I've had 5 or 6 people state the same thing and began experiencing it myself on a state of the art gaming comp with the last update.

 

If its the stutter effect. Where the screen basically freezes every few seconds, that is SWTOR not your PC, as its become more unstable over the past month or so. It does primarily seem to happen in group finder content more then anywhere else, be it Warzones/Ranked/Flashpoints.

 

Good news is if this is the case a restart of the game tends to fix this for at least a day or so on average. You can always try a fresh reinstall as well, switching to the Steam version has helped a lot of people in my experiences.

 

Ultimately if this is the only game that gives you issues like this, chances are it's the game not your computer.

 

I guess it’s possible BioWare updated a graphics ini. and it’s affecting PC/Laptops with low end graphics hardware. But as someone whose business was fixing laptops and PCs for years, I’m fairly confident that it’s a throttling issue.

In saying that, there is one other possibility.

Microsoft had a windows 10 update not so long ago that is causing big problems with gaming. They are recommending gamers roll back the update to 20H2 as it’s the most stable and bug free version of Win10 currently available.